Alien fans got a special (and gruesome) gift on Christmas Day, in the form of the first red band trailer for the sci-fi/horror flick, Alien: Covenant. The Ridley Scott-directed film, which comes after Prometheus but before the original Alien film in the franchise's timeline, has the same basic narrative elements as Scott's previous two installments in the series before it - a story about a group of human space explorers (and one android) who find their way to a mysterious planet where they encounter dangerous extraterrestrial life seemingly bent on killing them all.
Covenant includes direct ties to Prometheus - see the return of Michael Fassbender as the "synthetic" David and the black goo created by the Engineer alien race - and is said to directly connect with Alien, making it something of an "inbetweenquel" in the vein of this year's Star Wars movie release, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Also like both Rogue One and Prometheus, much of the dramatic tension during Covenant will be due to audiences not knowing the ultimate fates of its characters ahead of time; something that both the film's trailer and a newly-released set of images call further attention to.
20th Century Fox has unveiled three additional images from Alien: Covenant, in the form of a screenshot that features Katherine Waterston as the film's protagonist Daniels, as well as a screenshot that features Waterston's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them costar, Carmen Ejogo, and a photo that shows Scott on the movie's set working out a scene with cast member Jussie Smollett (Empire). You can check out all three images, below.
Between the three main cast members featured in these Alien: Covenant images, only Ejogo's character appears to be in immediate danger - based on what is shown of the scene pictured here (set in the spaceship Covenant's med-room) in the film's red band trailer, as well a previously-released photo that seems to depict the bloody aftermath of the incident being teased here. If Scott's previous two Alien franchise installments are anything to go by, then Waterston as Daniels might well be the only character shown here who makes it to the climax of the movie, still alive.
Judging by the initial wave of marketing material for the film, Scott and Covenant screenwriter John Logan (Gladiator, Skyfall) aren't vying to re-invent the wheel here so much as meld together the philosophical sci-fi pontificating of Prometheus with the (alien) monster movie entertainment of the original Alien, as a means of further tying the two films together in more ways than just plot. If they're successful in those efforts, then Alien: Covenant could prove to be a best of both worlds-type situation that both pleases Alien fans of all shades and keeps hopes alive that the franchise will go on after Covenant, with Neill Blomkamp's own buzzed-about Alien project still waiting in the wings for just that.
NEXT: How Does Covenant Fit Between Prometheus & Alien?
Source: 20th Century Fox